Philippine Labor Force Situation

Source BusinessWorld

Some 2.93 million Filipinos were without work as of May this year as the available jobs were not enough for those who looked for work after the economy fully reopened from the pandemic lockdowns, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday...

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The Philippine peso had its worst day in over 17 years, falling to P56 to the US dollar on Thursday...

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Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno is optimistic about a double-digit growth for the domestic economy in the second quarter of 2022 following the 8.3-percent expansion in the first three months this year...

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The country's gross international reserves (GIR) fell to a 21-month low of $101.98 billion at the end of June this year due to national government debt payments and falling gold prices...

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The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said all Philippine regions remain under low-risk classification for Covid-19...

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The Delta variant remained the dominant coronavirus variant in the country, although the majority of cases in recent weeks were of the more transmissible Omicron sublineage BA.5, the Department of Health (DOH) said, citing the results of the latest genome sequencing...

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Citing how the Covid-19 pandemic served as an eye-opener on how challenging it is for low-income Filipinos to obtain even the basic preventive health care, Sen. Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go filed a bill that will allow all Filipinos to get a free annual medical check-up...

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Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno is open to the idea of imposing a carbon tax in the country. "Carbon tax too, if feasible," Diokno told reporters when asked if he would consider imposing a carbon tax as another approach to address climate challenges in the Philippines...

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Nine Negros Island representatives filed a bill seeking the creation of an expanded Negros Island Region (NIR) before the House of Representatives on Wednesday...

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The Philippine Catholic Church and the laity criticized the re-filing at the House of Representatives a bill seeking to legalize divorce in the country...

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Suspending the excise on gasoline and diesel is seen by Sen. Grace Poe as the best way to rein in pump prices, now that average Dubai crude continues to exceed $80 (about P4,480) per barrel...

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There would be no need for beneficiaries registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) to present physical IDs when claiming future subsidy grants, said a Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) official...

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A bill has been refiled in the Senate guaranteeing 15 days’ paid leave to public and private sector workers who have to serve as caregivers to relatives...

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A party-list lawmaker on Thursday filed a bill seeking to reorganize and modernize the Bureau of Immigration (BI)...

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Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said his department is considering a carbon tax, and is currently working out whether such a measure is practicable...

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Apple Inc AAPL.O on Wednesday said it plans to release a new feature called “Lockdown Mode” this fall that aims to add a new layer of protection for human rights advocates, political dissidents and other targets of sophisticated hacking attacks...

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Meta Platforms Inc. is modifying how users log onto its virtual reality headsets, backtracking on an earlier change to require accounts from the company's flagship Facebook app on the devices while preserving links to social connections there...

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A string of sandbars near the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa (Thitu) Island is becoming another flashpoint in the maritime and territorial dispute between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea...

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The World Bank (WB) said the Philippines’ cash transfer program, designed to aid the poorest 40% of the population, has seen beneficiaries from outside that category creep in gradually, to the point where only 60% of recipients in 2020 would have qualified under the original eligibility criteria...

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is mulling over attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, where he may deliver a speech, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said Thursday...

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The governments of Ireland, Malta, and France have recalled several variants of the popular Filipino noodle brand Lucky Me!, particularly the noodle soup and pancit canton variants manufactured between 2021 and 2022...

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Exporters enjoy zero tariff in selling their products to the United States, which is an advantage that faces a stark future as the US government plans to amend the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program...

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The Philippines' bibingka was ranked among the best cakes in the world, based on a recently-published list of an international food and lifestyle website...

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United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to resign, his office said on Thursday, ending an unprecedented political crisis over his future that has paralyzed the western European country's government...

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Foreign ministers from leading rich and developing nations in the Group of 20 (G20) are gathering in Indonesia's resort island of Bali for talks bound to be dominated by the war in Ukraine despite an agenda focused on global cooperation and food and energy security...

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The heads of the United Kingdom and United States intelligence agencies warned on Wednesday about China's commercial espionage thrust in the West, in a rare joint address at the British agency's London headquarters...

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Russia redoubled its push for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region on Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have repelled some advances and both sides reporting casualties...

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Sri Lanka has asked Russia to provide fuel and resume tourist flights to help the country weather its unprecedented economic crisis, the South Asian country's embattled leader said on Wednesday...

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Hong Kong's new government has suspended a longstanding flight route ban that penalized airlines for bringing in coronavirus cases and severely impeded travel into the city, saying it was "not very effective."...

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Soaring global food and energy prices have forced 71 million people into poverty in the world’s poorest countries, according to a United Nations Development Program report published Thursday...

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President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had barely got started in Ukraine and dared the West to try to defeat it on the battlefield...

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday that the economic sanctions imposed by the West against Russia had not worked, echoing comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin...

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Picky penguins and ornery otters at a Japanese aquarium are facing the effects of inflation, refusing the new bargain bites their keepers are now offering after a jump in prices...

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Some 84 million pupils and students worldwide may drop out of school by 2030 unless developing nations undertake measures to ensure universal access to quality education, according to the UNESCO...

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It is up to the Philippines under the Marcos administration to participate in the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Thursday...

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The latest move of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a welcome development given the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UN HRC’s) lackluster action against killings under former president Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs...

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President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, July 6, that Russia had barely got started in Ukraine and dared the West to try to defeat it on the battlefield, while insisting that Moscow was still open to the idea of peace talks...

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Beijing’s top official for cross-strait affairs has outlined a framework for a Taiwan strategy, saying tensions with the island would gradually be resolved as mainland China’s strength grows...

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Paleontologists said Thursday they had discovered a new giant carnivorous dinosaur species that had a massive head and tiny arms, just like Tyrannosaurus rex...

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President Marcos has abolished the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary, created an office for an adviser for military and police affairs, and reorganized and folded the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) and its attached agencies into the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS)...

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Former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Jose Maria "Joey" Concepcion 3rd has proposed a "traffic light approach" in determining Covid-19 alert level systems...

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A majority of Filipinos, or 63 percent, support the repeal of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), signed into law by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2019, the PUBLiCUS' second quarter survey showed...

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Seven provinces in the country have posted Covid-19 positivity rates higher than 10 percent, according to data from OCTA Research...

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The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) urged retailers to accelerate the adoption of digital technology in their operations...

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The Philippines has been urged to pursue a more aggressive stance in prioritizing cyber security to achieve cyber resiliency...

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Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista issued a marching order to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to reduce freight costs and fare to contribute to the easing of the heating up inflation...

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has started its investigation of the popular noodle brand Lucky Me! after it was recalled from store shelves in several European countries due to the presence of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic antimicrobial pesticide...

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Local think tank Infrawatch PH is urging the government to look into possible "collusion and price-fixing among power generators" before implementing the Manila Electric Company's (Meralco) staggered rate hike...

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President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday appointed former defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana as chair of the board of directors of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA)...

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President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., who is also his own Agriculture Secretary, has called on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to focus on infrastructure projects that benefit food security, Public Works Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan said...

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The administration of COVID-19 booster shots, as well as the primary vaccine series, are still not mandatory in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) clarified on Thursday...

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The Sandiganbayan on Thursday suspended its hearing on the ill-gotten wealth case filed against President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and his family in 1987...

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The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the power of municipal and city mayors and provincial governors to discipline erring officials and employees under their jurisdictions...

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Four districts in Manila remain free of COVID-19 amid an uptick in new infections in the National Capital Region...

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The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI)’s members are ready to admit COVID-19 patients whose numbers are expected to increase later this month...

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The number of unemployed Filipinos slightly increased in May this year despite the increased labor force as the country continues to reopen its economy amid the pandemic, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday...

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The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will aggressively raise its benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) in August, Governor Felipe Medalla announced on Thursday...

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The amount of bad loans in the Philippine banking sector decreased to P429.48 billion at the end of May, data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday showed. Gross nonperforming loans (NPLs) held by lenders were down 10.50 percent even as the overall loan portfolio climbed by 7.22 percent to P11.44 trillion from P10.66 trillion a year ago...

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Digital payments took a larger share of retail payments last year in both volume and value, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BPS) reported on Wednesday...

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The Philippine peso broke through the 56:$1 level on July 7, closing at 56.06 against the US dollar and losing more than three pesos to the greenback in just 19 days of trading...

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The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) returned to the black in 2021 with a net income of P595.8 billion, on the back of lower pricing of future liabilities as well as smaller expenses than revenues...

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While production at the country’s factories sustained growth in May, the manufacturing sector’s sales slowed down as consumers’ savings got squeezed by high prices of goods and services...

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As available jobs failed to keep up while more Filipinos looked for work with economic reopening in full swing, the unemployment rate rose to 6 percent in May, equivalent to 2.93 million jobless people...

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To combat smuggling, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) unmasked 100 dummies and revoked the accreditation of 264 erring Customs brokers and importers in the first half of 2022...

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A lone bank tapped the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) peso rediscount window in June after the facility was left untouched last month...

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The country’s foreign exchange buffer declined for the fourth straight month in June to hit its lowest level in 21 months due to the weak peso, the decrease in gold prices as well as the payment of more foreign obligations by the national government, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)...

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